Corporate Finance

Duane Morris advises financial institutions, capital markets participants and major borrowers on all aspects of complex financing structures and financial products. The firm's Corporate Finance Group is interdisciplinary, blending the documentation skills of finance attorneys with the industry knowledge of lawyers focusing their practices in such areas as energy, transportation, telecommunications, waste management, infrastructure, healthcare and emerging markets.

The Duane Morris Corporate Finance Group mirrors the complex financing structures and sophisticated financial products that dominate the current financial and capital marketplaces.

Financial Products

Lawyers experienced in developing these structures and products are teamed with industry-specific talent to deliver global capabilities for some of the most prevalent industries/sectors participating in today's financial and capital markets transactions including:

Financing Structures

The core services provided to regional, national and international financial institutions are built around the financing structures they develop and syndicate for their largest transactions. Certain financing structures are long-standing, traditional ones found in leveraged finance and asset-based finance transactions, while others are evolving, cutting-edge structures common to equipment, project, synthetic, and recently, debtor-in-possession (DIP) finance. Duane Morris attorneys analyze, document and organize a wide array of these financing structures and have acquired extensive experience to serve clients effectively.

The Project Finance Practice

The Project Finance Practice provides a full range of legal experience to successfully complete sophisticated, highly structured domestic and international project financings. Our lawyers have been active in project finance transactions for nearly three decades. Skilled documentation professionals are teamed with attorneys possessing industry-specific experience in energy, telecommunications, resources, environmental management, transportation infrastructure, healthcare and emerging markets. Together with the support of environmental, tax, public finance, real estate, securities and insurance lawyers, we deliver an integrated capability to financial institutions, sponsors, borrowers, agents, investors and underwriters.

Duane Morris attorneys counsel clients engaging in a wide range of industrial and infrastructure projects, including power generation, waste management, water and mineral resources, air and surface transportation facilities, and other infrastructure projects, as well as telecommunications, healthcare and divergent industrial and manufacturing facilities worldwide.

The Leveraged Finance Practice

The cash flow sensitivity of leveraged finance transactions presents both opportunity and risk to financial institutions and other senior debt lenders providing necessary credit facilities for acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, restructurings and refinancings. Attorneys in the Corporate Finance Group serve lenders and borrowers efficiently and effectively by utilizing a wide range of model loan documents crafted through decades of experience. Duane Morris loan documentation attorneys focus on short-turnaround documentation, coupled with the detailed legal due diligence necessary to protect the interests of our clients. Working with attorneys in our industry-specific practices, such as healthcare, broker-dealers insurance, real estate, energy, telecommunications, transportation equipment and infrastructure, the Corporate Finance Group delivers a broad range of skills to senior lender clients involved in leveraged financing transactions.

The Asset-Based Finance Practice

Thorough documentation, monitoring and financial reporting are crucial to successful asset-based or collateral-based financing. The Corporate Finance Group provides financial institutions in this market the experience necessary to successfully structure, negotiate, document and restructure asset-based finance transactions. The Corporate Finance attorneys at Duane Morris also deliver concise, definitive advice to asset-based lenders in the administration of complicated credit arrangements, including ever-present intercreditor and subordination issues.

The Synthetic Finance Practice

An increasing number of asset-rich clients have tapped their balance sheets to improve their financial performance and obtain liquidity for operations and investments. Attorneys in the Corporate Finance Group analyze and structure synthetic leases and "double dip" leases to provide tax-advantaged treatment, sale-leasebacks, lease-leasebacks and like-kind exchange of equipment, operational facilities and real estate. The firm's tax lawyers are an integral element in one of the most interdisciplinary practices of the Corporate Finance Group. Attorneys in the Corporate Finance Practice represent lenders/lessors/sellers and large institutional borrowers/lessees/buyers in synthetic finance transactions in the aircraft, rail, real estate, healthcare and industrial sectors, and structure economical, tax-advantaged financing alternatives for Duane Morris clients.

The Debtor-in-Possession Finance Practice

Bankruptcy filings provide a particular challenge to the Corporate Finance Group. Working closely with the Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring Practice, the Corporate Finance Group directs our clients through the intricate courtroom proceedings involving First Day orders, cash collateral orders, creditor committee meetings and adversarial proceedings, as well as the documentary labyrinth necessary to structure a secure, successful DIP financing.

Duane Morris attorneys counsel lenders, creditors, trustees and sometimes debtors, in connection with reorganizations and DIP financings in the retail, transportation (infrastructure and equipment), power and industrial arenas.

Financial Products

The Duane Morris Corporate Finance Group provides services to investment banks and other capital markets participants that are built around the complex financial products developed and distributed by these institutions in the capital markets. These financial products include private equity and high yield debt, mezzanine financing, commercial paper, public and private debt instrument placement, structured finance products and derivative and risk hedging products. Duane Morris attorneys have represented capital markets participants since the inception of these innovative financial products and financing techniques, and continue to mold and adapt these products to the ever-changing needs and demands of the capital markets landscape.

The Mezzanine/Private Equity/High Yield Practice

Today's mega-sized acquisitions and buy-out transactions require multilayering of debt and equity investments. This investment-focused practice of the Corporate Finance Group offers in-depth experience at each stage of the development process, from "angel" investment for seed capital, through second and third equity raises and pre-public offering mezzanine lending and investment, to mature "club deal" private equity recapitalization, buyouts and leveraged acquisitions. Corporate Finance attorneys counsel venture capital and private equity firms, funds and investors in their investments and portfolio companies in their organizations, add-on acquisitions, roll-up programs, public and private equity offerings and debt placements.

The firm also represents the users of capital, representing a myriad of start-ups and mature companies in their negotiations with investors in connection with working capital, bridge and acquisition investments. Our attorneys often negotiate the unwinding of burdensome, preexisting investment structures. Recently, one of our attorneys successfully restructured the accelerated, outstanding "death spiral" preferred stock issued by a public company client, thereby rescuing a life-preserving merger with another public company.

High yield investments enable highly leveraged transactions by spreading credit risk with hybrid, noninvestment grade securities sold in the private or public markets. Our high yield practitioners counsel issuers, underwriters, placement agents, purchasers and advisors in the most involved high yield financing transactions. Our attorneys focus beyond traditional interest rate setting issues to structure and document redemption, covenant, market-influenced terms and other provisions that increasingly impact success or failure in the public or private markets.

The Public/Private Debt Placement Practice

Attorneys in the Corporate Finance Group are seasoned in working with issuers, underwriters and placement agents, as well as purchasers, in a wide array of debt instruments placed or sold in the private and public markets, including commercial paper, indentured notes, high yield debt, securitized instruments and debt conduit programs. The attorneys of the Corporate Finance Group have witnessed vast change in the complexity of these debt instruments and the manner in which they are sold. Our attorneys are knowledgeable in Rule 144, Regulation S, Securities Act, Investment Company Act, Uniform Commercial Code, insurance regulations and derivative regulatory issues arising from the public sale and private placement of debt securities. The attorneys in this practice work closely with our pension and insurance lawyers to serve insurance company clients in the purchase of debt securities for their portfolios and for mutual funds under management.

The Trade Finance Practice

The international laws of commerce and international trade practices have become increasingly important concerns of our clients. Our lawyers have negotiated, drafted and analyzed a wide range of international trade finance documents and their concomitant reimbursement documents. We have litigated document provisions under the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Customs and Practices Act, national laws and the rules and practices of international arbitral tribunals. Our lawyers advise financial institutions in the use of standby and commercial letters of credit, in the financing of domestic and international trade transactions and relationships, and in the use of letters of credit as credit enhancement instruments.

Corporate Finance Roster

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